May 19: The Heat and Chinatown

Avocado Ice Cream

My wife and I went out early to buy groceries. Since it was hot, we bought ice-cream, Arce ice cream of course, Avocado flavor. One of the things I have observed in Philippine fruits is that they are sweet. There are several mango varieties available in Canada but none of them can beat the sweetness of Philippine mango, not even the Ataulfo mangoes which looks just like it.



Avocados also are sweet and are treated as a dessert here. When I tell my friends in Canada that we use it as a dessert, I get a weird look. But here, we make it into an ice cream because it is a bit sweet. There are also a lot of indigenous fruits like santol, atis, chico that are not available anywhere else - as far as I know. Even the kalamansi (lime) has some sweetness in it.

Freshly scooped ice cream - already melting

The weather was very HOT - 40 degrees. Just look at the freshly scooped ice cream picture. It is melting as I scooped it!

In the afternoon, I had to go to Chinatown for some personal business. I walked these streets when I was a child until I finished university.

The streets had been raised to prevent it from flooding. The interesting thing is that the street had a breeze running through it. Maybe the tall buildings on both sides of the road provided shade on the street which caused the air to move.

In any case, Chinatown is still Chinatown. Traffic, dirty, noisy. It won't be Chinatown if it was not that. Victoria Chinatown, I think, is the example of what a Chinatown is not. It is neither traffic, dirty nor noisy - and it's just one block. I read a blogger call it Chinablock.

Maki Mi

My brother and I went to the restaurant his wife manages and we had maki mi.

Anyway, we drove by the streets where I grew up. We passed through the Gandara bridge, Ongpin Street, Arranque market. All in all, a successful day.

Gandara bridge

The original Lingnam Noodle House

Arranque Market

Further down Arranque Market